Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms in Patients with Type 1 and 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Patients with diabetes are at increased risk of developing depression. The aim of the study was to determine the occurrence of depressive symptoms in patients with type 1 (T1DM) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM), including the association with different independent sociodemographic and clinical variables.

The studies were carried out on 618 people, including 115 patients with T1DM and 215 patients with T2DM and 288 people without diabetes constituting two control groups. Subjects were characterized in terms of sociodemographic, clinical and biochemical aspects, and the occurrence of depressive symptoms using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was determined. In the logistic regression analysis, the correlations between BDI score and with independent variables such as sex, age, body mass index, duration of diabetes, HbA1c level, diabetic complications and mean arterial pressure were examined.

The mean BDI score was significantly higher in women and men with T1DM and T2DM compared to controls. In diabetic patients, depressive symptoms occurred more often in women than in men. Among patients with T1DM, the incidence of depressive symptoms was 17.5% of the women and 8.6% of the men and in patients with T2DM, the incidence of depressive symptoms was revealed in 28.9% of the women and in 19.8% of the men. In patients with T1DM and T2DM, the occurrence of depressive symptoms increases with age, HbA1c level and complications, and the risk of depressive symptoms turned out to be almost three times higher in women than in men with T2DM.

The prevalence of depressive symptoms in diabetic patients is higher than in non-diabetics. Depressive symptoms account for 13% of the patients with T1DM and 24.7% of the patients with T2DM. The risk of depressive symptoms in T1DM and T2DM increases with age, HbA1c level and the presence of complications, and it is gender-related in T2DM only.